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Oral Histories | In May 1950, Louise Spinner Graf served as foreman on the first Wyoming jury, with one minor exception, to include women since 1871. Born in Green River, Wyo., she attended university and worked in local banks. After marrying George Graf in 1930, she quit working to raise their daughter, and remained active in the community the rest of her life.

Oral Histories | In 1905, Caroline Fuller came to Thermopolis, Wyo., and entered a field usually reserved for men—dentistry. How she came to take dental impressions and pull teeth for sheep barons and cowboys in remote parts of Wyoming is only one phase of her interesting life.

Oral Histories | Frank Shepperson has ranched with his family northwest of Casper, Wyo., for many years. In this 2014 interview, Shepperson, a former national rodeo champion, talks at length about rodeo, ranching—and airplanes. He is a past president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and former chairman of the Natrona County School Board.

Essays | The mining town of Kirwin, Wyo., once a thriving concern, held promise of gold and other riches during its heyday in the late 1800s, but went into decline in the early 1900s. The scenic beauty of the area drew aviatrix Amelia Earhart to the Double Dee Ranch nearby in the 1930s, but her dreams of a vacation cabin there were never realized.

Encyclopedia | In 1850, 19-year-old Alvah Unthank left Indiana to head to California with the Newport Mining Company. In late June, he carved his name at Register Cliff, but a few days later, he succumbed to cholera. His grave near present Glenrock, Wyo. is among the best preserved on the historic trails.

Encyclopedia | West of Rock Avenue on the Oregon Trail in what’s now central Wyoming, emigrant oxen often got stuck in an alkaline mire historians sometimes refer to as Clayton’s Slough, in memory of the Mormon diarist who called it “one of the most horrid, swampy, stinking places I ever saw.”

Encyclopedia | Oregon Trail emigrants faced high risks crossing the North Platte River near present Casper, Wyo. River crossings were extremely dangerous; operators of commercial ferries and bridges charged steep prices. Until bridges were built, many people and animals drowned in the swift, deep, shockingly cold water of the Platte.

Encyclopedia | Fifteen miles from Prospect Hill, Oregon Trail emigrants as they neared Independence Rock began passing shallow, sometimes dry lakes. If dry, the lake floors were encrusted with snow-white alkali—essentially baking soda—which the pioneers called saleratus. It worked well for raising bread baked over sagebrush campfires.

Encyclopedia | Poetry, shouts and song—year after year, reactions were similar when Oregon Trail emigrants managed the steep climb up Prospect Hill, also called Ryan Hill, on the road from the North Platte to Independence Rock. The sight of range after range of mountains greeted them—a sweeping view of new country.

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“Fair, Faithful and Fearless”

On the newspaper's 21st anniversary in 1907, Bill Barlow's Budget of Douglas, Wyo., declared itself “Fair, Faithful and Fearless.” Click the links below for access to a new series of WyoHistory.org articles on Wyoming newspapers and the people — always reaching for the Budget's ideals — who made them what they were. For their generous support, we thank the Wyoming Humanities Council and the Pulitzer Prizes Centennial Campfires Initiative, a joint venture of the Pulitzer Prizes Board and the Federation of State Humanities Councils in celebration of the 2016 centennial of the prizes.

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